


Babysitting, Mando'ade edition

by Iamprongsie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff/Crack, Gen, Rex has no idea what to do with a child but he's actually a pretty good babysitter, Rex vs a tiny child armed with glittery markers, Siege of Mandalore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23611705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamprongsie/pseuds/Iamprongsie
Summary: There is achildon base. In the middle of an active warzone.Armed with sparkly markers.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Sabine Wren, Sabine Wren & Ursa Wren
Comments: 29
Kudos: 193





	Babysitting, Mando'ade edition

There is a _child_ on base. In the middle of an active warzone. 

Armed with sparkly markers. 

Rex knew Mandalorians were mental (he says this as a proud Mando’ade himself, shut up), but not _this_ mental. The kid has to be around two in natborn years, definitely not old enough to hold a blaster, no matter what his own childhood taught him. 

The kid looks up at him, caught in the act of scribbling all over the walls. 

… alright, he’ll bite. Someone this young shouldn’t be left alone on a military base anyway, although Rex doesn’t know if a burnt out shell of a city counts as a base. 

“Alright kid, where’s your parents?”

The kid turns away, adding what appears to be an explosion to the drawings on the walls. 

“Can you even talk yet?” he asks, bewildered. His brothers were talking at two, but two for them was four in natborn years. Right. So they probably can’t talk, and their parents are missing. Brilliant. 

What the fuck is he supposed to do. He’s helped out with the younger clones when he was training, everyone did. Maybe a natborn kid is just like a clone?

Here goes nothing. 

He leans down to the kid’s level, taking his helmet off and clipping it to his belt. “Do you wanna come find your parents with me? It’s not safe for you to be unattended here,” he says, and the kid grabs their markers and toddles to their feet. He picks them up and they latch onto him, sticking their foot into his helmet like it’s a natural foothold for them. It probably is, if their parents are mando’ade. 

“Alright, let’s go find your parents,” Rex says, heading in the direction he was originally going. “You’re definitely mando, that’s for sure. And that’s some very good art on the walls over there,” he continues, feeling mildly stupid for talking to a kid that can’t even talk back. “I liked the explosions.”

The kid kicks his chest slightly, giggling. Rex smiles. He keeps winding his way around the halls, and eventually the kid stops kicking his chest and opens a marker. They start drawing on his chestplate, a few shaky stick figures and lots of yellow and pink smears that he things might be explosions again. The drawings keep coming as he finds his way into the main briefing room. At some point the explosions turn into abstract designs, and he’s actually really impressed. The kid’s going to be a great artist one day, he reckons.

Rex finally gets to the briefing room, armour covered in sparkly doodles. The kid even got his ammo pouch, which thankfully was empty (he knows it’s against regs, but he’s got double in his belt and he very frankly doesn’t care for the regs anymore), and they’ve added some very nice details in orange on his pauldron. The irony isn’t lost on him - Cody hasn’t spoken to him for a week over this chip thing. It hurts, not having his friend to talk to, but both of them are stubborn bastards and neither of them are budging on this argument.

The first thing he notices is General Skywalker on the comms, Ahsoka leaning on the map table and talking to him. Kryze is in the corner, helmet on, probably glowering at the casualty reports on the datapad in her hands. Jesse is passed out in one of the chairs, and Rex kicks the bottom of the chair to wake his friend. 

“Look alive, trooper,” he says. The kid smiles again and tries to draw on Rex’s face. 

Jesse looks belligerent, despite the kid in Rex’s arms. “If it’s not news about Kix, I don’t give a fuck,” he says. “He’s been gone for _days,_ something’s definitely wrong.”

“Don’t swear in front of the kid,” Rex says, choosing not to comment on the blatant insubordination. The last few days have been rough on his friend. 

“Fuck!” the kid says cheerfully, and Rex wants to die. So the kid can talk, but he’s just accidentally taught them to swear. Brilliant. 

“Does anyone know who’s child this is?” he asks. 

“Where’d you find them, Rexie?” Ahsoka asks, finally noticing the scene in front of her. Skywalker turns around too and starts snickering - the kid’s been doodling on his armour for the better part of an hour. He probably looks like he wandered into a glittery explosion.

“Nice armour, Captain,” Skywalker says. “Better hope that washes off,” he says, and the holocall winks out. Rex sighs. 

“Found them drawing on the wall by the hangar,” Rex says. “Who do they belong to?”

Kryze finally looks up and joins the conversation, giving a low snicker as she takes her helmet off. “That’s one of Ursa’s kids,” she says, putting her arms out. Rex tries to hand the kid over, but they whine and cling tighter to him. “She’s out at the moment, I think she’ll be back soon. Her name’s Sabine, by the way.”

Sabine, having heard her name, starts giggling. She gets out another pen and Rex sits down at the briefing table, hoping to find some flimsi or something so he can save the rest of his armour from her drawings. 

Manda, he hopes this washes off eventually - it’s not seemly for a clone captain to be running around with multicoloured scribbles all over his armour. Then again, they could all do with some fun around here. The casualties are getting worse, Kix is missing and Jesse is bitter and angry in his grief, he hasn’t had a civil conversation with his best friend in over a month, and fucking Maul is still running around Mandalore like he owns the place. 

He barely notices Ahsoka taking holos of him with Sabine on his lap during the meeting, too busy trying to figure out how to take Sundari with the small amount of troops they have left. Sabine sits happily drawing on a piece of flimsi, until she gets bored again and sits under the table, likely drawing on his boots. 

Eventually Ursa comes in, an imposing woman despite her short stature, and Sabine instantly scuttles out from under the table and hugs her mother. 

“Mumma!” she exclaims, and Ursa picks her up, careful to avoid a flailing marker. She smiles at her daughter, and kisses her on the forehead. 

“Where were you all afternoon, Bean?” she asks. Rex clears his throat. 

“I found her by the hangar,” he says. “She was drawing on the walls and I thought it better that she have some adult supervision, so I brought her back to the briefing with me,” he continues awkwardly. He vaguely remembers that it’s rude to criticise natborns about their parenting techniques, but Ursa just stares coolly at him and then breaks into a small smile. 

“My thanks then, Captain,” she says. “I probably should have left her with her father, but there was limited time. I hope she hasn’t been too much trouble?”

Rex shakes his head. “No trouble at all,” he replies. “She’s a very good artist, though.”

“She takes after her father,” Ursa says, and Sabine giggles. “Thank you for finding her, Captain.”

She walks out the room, Sabine in tow, and Rex soon forgets all about the interaction in the wake of what happens next. 

***

Years later, after the second liberation of Mandalore, he’s sitting around a fire with the spectres and a couple Mando’ade, drinking tihaar and telling war stories. He’s just finished talking about the time he and Cody and a couple of shinies saved the GAR at Rishi, when the short woman on the other side of the fire starts speaking. 

Rex feels like he recognises her from somewhere - she came in with Bo-Katan Kryze’s lot last night, and he feels like her yellow and grey armour is familiar. 

“Did I ever tell you about the time Sabine drew all over a clone trooper?” she asks, and the pieces click into place as Sabine puts her face in her hands and starts groaning. 

“I was _two_ , mum!”

Ezra looks delighted as the woman begins to speak again - that has to be Ursa Wren. She’s with Kryze, who greeted Rex like an old friend despite not having seen him for a good eighteen years, Sabine is clearly her daughter, and Rex vaguely remembers the incident in question. 

“I left her under the care of one of my friends in the hangar when I had to leave the base for a while,” Ursa says, taking a sip. “She escaped and ended up drawing all over the walls until he found her, then she started drawing all over him!”

Sabine’s groans of embarrassment are drowned out by Ezra’s cackles and Zeb’s booming laughter. 

“Please tell me there’s holos,” Hera says, smiling at Ursa. 

“I have some,” Rex says, snickering. “I was the trooper she drew all over, Jesse and Ahsoka took them in a briefing.”

Sabine abruptly sits up straight, an expression of horror on her face. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she says, turning bright red. 

Rex can’t help but laugh. “It’s fine, vod’ika. We were all having a pretty shitty time towards the end, it was a good pick me up. You were a good artist back then, as well.”

“Thanks,” Sabine mutters, still mortified. 

Rex gets his datapad out and brings up the old holos, of him looking grumpy and tired, covered in glittery marker. There’s one of Sabine in his lap during the briefing, trying to draw on his face while he tries to get her to draw on the flimsi instead, and another where all the pink explosion doodles on his chestplate are in full view. 

That stuff didn’t come off for a week. 

“Awwww, you were so cute Sabine, what happened?” Ezra asks, and gets whacked in the arm for his trouble. 

Kanan is almost pissing himself laughing, and Rex is painfully reminded of Skywalker. He pushes those memories down in favour of making new ones, as the holos are passed around and Sabine groans. 

“I think I have some of her drawing on me,” Ursa says, and the whole thing starts all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by a prompt over on the ani5 discord and I tried to make it fluffy to stave off next week's inevitable clone wars pain, but it got a bit angsty whoops!
> 
> pls feel free to leave a comment or a kudos!


End file.
